Supervisors Issue Resolution Against Exclusivity Contracts
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution urging Brown & Toland Medical Group to stop asking doctors in the Chinese Community Health Care Association to sign exclusive contracts that would require them to resign from other physicians' groups, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Goodyear, San Francisco Chronicle, 4/12).
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera on Monday filed a lawsuit against Brown & Toland Medical Group alleging unfair business practices in an attempt to "coerce" Chinese doctors into signing exclusivity agreements. The agreements would provide financial incentives and administrative services but require them to resign from other physicians' groups.
CCHCA includes about 160 bilingual physicians who work at Chinese and other hospitals in San Francisco. About 20,000 of the association's 27,000 patients are insured through the Chinese Community Health Plan or the San Francisco Health Plan for Medi-Cal beneficiaries and the uninsured. Brown & Toland doctors do not accept either plan (California Healthline, 4/11).
Brown & Toland officials met with Mayor Gavin Newsom's (D) aides on Tuesday and will meet with Chinatown health officials on Wednesday. The physician group denies that it is asking Chinese doctors to leave CCHCA (San Francisco Chronicle, 4/12).